sup3r_xn0va_maya's Reviews (387)

Hostage to Pleasure is book 5 in the Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh. My lowest rated Pys-Changeling book is Mine to Possess because I wasn't really feeling either main character. Hostage to Pleasure was totally different than Mine to Possess for me. I really enjoyed Hostage to Pleasure. 

I loved Ashia and I loved Dorian and I especially loved

their son!

I enjoyed the story, the pacing, and the love scenes. Actually, I wish there were more love scenes. I enjoyed the ending even though I do have an issue with it. My issue is that

Dorian can't shift and that's considered a sort of disability. By "curing" or "fixing" him at the end you she just wrote the disabled trope, where the disabled person or peoples ends up being "fixed" by the end.

One thing that irritated me is that the main female character, her sister, and her son are all supposed to be Black but the cover art on the audiobook has Dorian huggin up on a white woman. Shame on the company for doing that, I thought things like that were finished with in the 90s.

All in all I really loved this story. 
I'm going to give it 5 stars out of 5

 Bloodmarked is book two in the Legendborn cycle by Tracy Deonn, and I would give it 6 stars if I could !

I really loved the commentary on racism and prejudice, it reminded me of (view spoiler) but for young adults.

My mind is racing with so many questions, because of course it ended on a cliff hanger. Which, I'm not mad about, I expected the cliff hanger because there's supposed to be at the least one more book in the cycle.

I'm not sure what else to say other than my friends and I are definitely team Sel, the last part ofthe book had us shook, and we can't wait for the next book in the cycle! It's so nice to buddy read books with a book club.

I give this 5 out of 5 stars!

I listened to this for free on Scribd

 

Bitter Room, Volume 3: Legacy continues where Bitter Root, volume 2 left off. Unfortunately I found myself a little confused while reading this, there are so many characters that we're supposed to remember and I was having a hard time mixing them up with one another. Another thing that's throwing me off are all the abrupt time skips and jumps. 

Four things I really loved are; the art, te lettering, the colors, and I like how it ended. 

Because of the time skips, it was hard to understand but it was nice to look at because the art and coloring are so beautiful. 

I give this a 3 out of 5 stars

Bitter Root, Volume 2: Rage & Redemption starts off where Bitter Root, Volume 1 left off. Demons are running wild and the Sangerye family is working together to stop the demonic onslaught. This volume was a bit confusing to follow at first, at the beginning there were these short stories that seemed to be a prologue to the volume itself and I wasn't sure when the actual "main story" with the "main characters" was going to start. 

I don't think I enjoyed volume two as much as volume one because I just spent so much time confused with what was happening. Once the storyline became clear again I was really invested in the characters and the situation at hand.

I give this 4 out of 5 Stars

The story was interesting but I didn't love the two main characters, Tally and Clay.
The abuse mentions in the story were hard for me to get through for personal reasons.
I'm interested to see where the story is going as far as the Psy Counsel goes, so I'm excited to continue the series. This is my lowest rated Nalini Singh book though, I don't think the main characters resonated with me like the other main characters of the other 3 books did.

I'm giving this 3.5 stars out of 5. 

I was really happy to find this book because I've been looking everywhere for a paranormal romance with a Black main character and this is it! I liked this book enough but I didn't love it, it really wasn't a romance to be honest. I really like the book from the beginning to the middle, that was really exciting and engaging, the stuff that came after is what I'm not really a fan of.  

Everyone keeps complaining about the "hip hop" dialogue and I'm not understanding if they're irritated that the characters were speaking AAVE (African American Vernacular English) or if they're bothered because some of the dialogue is a little clunky. 

I wish there were more than two actions scenes in this book, the action scenes are really where this author shines. 

Overall, this book could have been better but it was okay.
I'm giving it 3 out of 5 stars. 

Caressed by Ice is the third Psy/Changeling book and I really enjoyed it, maybe even more so than the second book (Visions of Heat). This book had more actions than the first and second books combined. It was just really enjoyable to read. I liked the characters as well as the storyline. 

Because this was so enjoyable, I'm giving this a 4.5 out of 5 stars. 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

update: 1 hour later

I had book club and discussed this book with some really cool friends. After talking it out I can see where the author was going with this book. I think my take away is that we should give Black men grace and understand when it comes to the ways they show up in our lives. Some of them might not know the "typical" ways to show love so they show love in the only ways they know.

I'm giving this a 3.5 out of 5 stars. 

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This book is ultimately about generational trauma and Black boy and manhood.
The main character wasn't likeable at all and I didn't like how terrible the main character was. With each confession I just became more and more irritated with the book and him. He was somewhat a grey area character, but to me he was just an unlikeable asshole. 

He often complained that he wanted his child to "be a man" and be confident and have strength but every chance the main character has at reaching out to his child to reconcile their relationship, he shys away. So now he's the meek one? Yeah, I don't like that hypocrisy, with as much grief as he gave his son for not acting like "a man", he could have stood up and "been a man" when it came to connecting with his son. 

I felt sorry for his family because they had to deal with him. I understand that he is trying to learn and do better as a person, he's so unlikeable that I don't care if he's trying to become a better person. I'm trying to be understanding to his character but it's hard for me.

My friends felt more sympathy than I did for the main character and maybe you will too.

I'm giving this a 3 out of 5 stars.

I really enjoyed "Bad Fat Black Girl" by Sesali Bowen. I don't rate memoirs because I don't think a person's life experience should be rated but I will talk about the things I liked and didn't like though. 

Something I didn't like was how short the book is. I also didn't like how there wasn't a section for trigger warnings, to warn about the serious content that is discussed within the book. 

I really liked how Bowen used her life experiences coupled with statics about domestic violence, sex trafficking, and sexual assaults to depict what life is like for a lot of Black femmes and Black gender non conforming folks in American currently. So much of this book resonated with me. 

I listened to the audiobook for free on Scribd

Parenthesis is about Elodie Durand and her illness in the form of a tumor in her brain that causes her epilepsy.

This was really powerful and moving. The subject matter was really tough but the graphic novel depicted Elodie's experiences well, I also loved all the abstract angsty drawings.

Most of the text in the graphic novel is in cursive and I found that text to be small and a bit difficult to read.

I don't rate people lived experiences so I will not be rating this graphic novel, I will just say that I really enjoyed the content and I appreciate the story being told.

I rented this from my local library via the LibbyApp